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International comparison of R&D personnel as a share of the labour force

data publication
08 August 2024
R&D personnel
In this data publication we show the relative share of R&D personnel in the total labour force, differentiated by two main categories: "researchers" and "other R&D personnel".

In short

  • In 2022, 18 out of each 1,000 people of the Dutch labour force worked in R&D.
  • This is less than in Belgium, Denmark and South-Korea, but more than in Norway, Switzerland and Germany.
  • The share of researchers in the Netherlands has risen sharply since 2013 (last break in the trend).

Belgium in the lead

Belgium is the largest with 24 R&D workers per 1,000 labour force. South Korea and Denmark and Finland follow with 21 out of 1,000, Sweden and Austria with 20 out of 1,000. The Netherlands has 18 employees in R&D per 1,000 people in the labor force. This puts the Netherlands above the EU27 average of 15. Sweden and South Korea has the most researchers per 1,000 working population: 17. In the Netherlands it is 11 out of 1,000. That's above the EU27 average of 10.

Increase since 2013

The underlying data shows an increase since 2013 for the majority of countries in both the share of R&D personnel and the share of researchers. Countries with a strong growth of the total R&D workforce are, for example, Belgium, China and South Korea. The share of researchers is growing strongly in China, Belgium and South Korea.

The number of researchers per 1,000 persons in the Netherlands was still below the OECD average in 2011. In 2019 it is two percentage points above the OECD average (which is unavailable for 2020).